XrF and Made in the USA
drew on Feb 23rd, 2009These @#$%^&* seats are too small- if only an XrF could fix THAT! I am sitting here on a flight to Atlanta, with my arms pinched to my sides (middle seat, natch) and my XrF in the overhead compartment.
Nice that these things can travel carry on. In the bad old days (OK, still even today) some XrF instruments use Radioactive Isotopes to make X-rays. Of course, we deliver the only system based on a Pyroelectric Crystal to make X-rays. And don’t they work great! What a cool thing- a little solid state crystal, rather than an isotope, or even an X-ray tube (sort of a light bulb that makes X-rays instead of visible light.) Yes, I know, our XrF is pretty cool, but it can’t deliver more room on this overfull flight, or save a sick puppy.
But…maybe it can. Testing of animal food might be a good idea, since, like most things, we have no idea where it comes from. Last year a friend almost lost her dear dog to the melamine scare, based on the surprising revelation that the stuff was from overseas, and was never really tested! The buyers just believed that what they ordered was what they got.
What other stuff is in there? And what does “Made in the USA” mean? Are the raw materials from Indiana, or from India? Are there extenders, plasticizers, fillers, preservatives, packaging, or other materials from sources bought based on price, not where home base lies? If so, does the pet food company, buying those preservatives from an American company get what they thought it would be? Or are the raw materials for those components from yet another location or set of suppliers? In the end, what does “Made in the USA” mean? Really, it means “Made on Planet Earth”, by people we may or may not know, and with whom we do not have a relationship of trust.
And that is why we test, test, test- the difference between believing and knowing.
